I attended an exclusive presentation and Q&A with Tim Schafer at the Double Fine studio. I listened to Tim candidly discuss the Adventure Kickstarter project and the special ingredient to its success, the pitch. Here are some critical take aways...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last couple of months, you’ve probably heard about the recent Kickstarter phenomenon, the Adventure project, launched by Tim Schafer and his Double Fine team along with 2 Player Productions. I was lucky enough to attend an exclusive presentation and Q&A with Tim Schafer at the Double Fine studio in San Francisco along with the GDC 2012 IGDA Scholars. It was there we listened to Tim candidly discuss the Adventure Kickstarter project and the special ingredient to its success, the pitch.

Before I jump into his pitch advice, here’s a little background on the project (in case you do, in fact, live under a rock). Double Fine and 2 Player Productions turned to Kickstarter to fund a point-and-click old-school Adventure game, as well as a video series that documents every step of the development process. They knew they couldn’t get publishers to fund the Adventure project, “so we went directly to the fans,” says Tim.

“We asked for $400,000. $300,000 for the game and $100,000 for the documentary,” Tim continues to note. “We ended up hitting our goal in the first night.” Not only did they hit their goal, they reached $1,000,000 in backer support the first day. They closed out the project receiving a total of $3,336,371, making Kickstarter history as the most well-funded project ever.

Funding Successful!

How did they exceed their goal by nearly $3,000,000? They did it by creating an event, a movement that all adventure game fans wanted to be a part of. Through the Kickstarter pitch they convinced people that this project must not only be made, but it must be made NOW. Through the pitch they convinced people that Double Fine and 2 Player Productions were the ONLY teams for the job. They also convinced people that if this was not just a project, but an event that called upon the fans - fans NEEDED to be a part of this.

What’s In A Pitch?
“Like they always say, a good pitch is a good story,” explains Tim. In the end, the success of getting your game funded, either through a publisher or through crowdfunding, boils down to telling a great story to inspire support. As I listened to Tim talk it became clear that there are 5 key tips, or “forces” as he referred to them, to crafting the perfect pitch. “All of these forces come together and this game just has to be made,” he states. “Do you want to be the people that benefit it and pay for it? A pitch is like that,” Tim concludes.

So, what are the 5 forces to creating an effective pitch? Without further adieu, here is advice for creating the perfect pitch, courtesy of Tim Schafer:

1. Prove why the game has to be made.
No matter what your project idea is, you need to make sure it’s clear to potential backers why your project fills a void and is significant enough for them to fund it.

The Adventure example is an easy one to examine within this context. Tim explains in the pitch video that for years fans have been asking Double Fine to make an adventure game. Demand is proven. Further, the documentary aspect is a unique angle. No one has ever created a fully transparent documentary that shows the game development process “from start to finish, with all the passion, humor, and heartbreak that happens along the way.” For game lovers, the documentary angle is really compelling.

Tim admits that “If I were to go to a publisher right now and ask for funding they’d laugh in my face.” So they thought, “let’s just use Kickstarter to fund the game!” Not just any game, but an adventure game where the fans can literally view and “collaborate” throughout the development process. The only way to bring this project into existence was to have the fans fund it, “so it was a good story” says Tim. It was the perfect opportunity to give the fans something they wanted AND allow them the chance to be a integral part in it. It was the perfect storm for a perfect story.

2. Prove why the game has to be made in a certain way.
How are you going to make the game and what makes your approach unique?

For the Adventure project, the collaboration aspect adds an extremely unique angle to the game’s development process. The Adventure Kickstarter page explains that “There will be a private online community set up for the backers to discuss the project with the devs and submit their thoughts and feelings about the game's content and direction, sometimes even voting on decisions when the dev team can't decide.” This is not just a project, but an event in which you can participate in a way that never has, and may never again, be available to adventure fans. This is something unique.

3. Prove why your team is the one-and-only team to make it.
What do you bring to the table? Why are you the unique team to bring your vision to life in a way that no one else can?

This is easily exemplified by the Adventure project because the man that invented the Adventure game genre, Ron Gilbert (Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island), is part of the Double Fine team. To boot, the entire Double Fine team is extremely skilled, comprised of some of the most talented artists, designers and programmers in the industry. They will not let fans down. They’re an ace in the hole for this project.

4. Prove why it’s critical the game is made now.
Is there a sense of urgency in why your project needs to get funded right now? You need to determine that angle and play it up in your pitch. In other words, develop a strong call-to-action.

In the pitch video Tim explains that “adventure games are a bit of a lost art form.” The Kickstarter text further illustrates the urgency of resurrecting the genre by stating “For fans of adventure games, this is a chance to prove that there is still a large demand out there for a unique medium that inspired so many of us.” Albeit subtle, the pitch definitely relays a sense of urgency in creating this game now. Additionally, the documentary bolsters the angle as it suggests nothing like this has ever been documented before - let’s do this and let’s do it now!

5. Prove that it’s more than game, it’s a significant event and fans need to be a part of it.
What can you offer to fans in return for their time and monetary support? It needs to be something of significant value, either tangible or abstract.

For the Adventure project, this is perhaps the most profound element. The pledge prizes are awesome and a lot of people probably backed the project just as a way to pre-pay for the finished Adventure game. The inclusiveness of participating however, really made the project special - a movement fans were called upon to be a part of. “Join Tim on his revolutionary adventure and become part of the experience” is the text that concludes the pitch video. The ability for backers to watch the monthly update video series and collaborate in the development of the game are priceless prizes in the eyes of many adventure fans.

The tangible prizes are also personalized. The Kickstarter page explains that “For anyone who wants to contribute above and beyond the call, we have a selection of premium rewards ranging from...unique posters, to original concept art, and even a mini painting of yourself done by the game's artist!”

Concept Art Prize Examples - Kickstarter Page

As the page describes, it’s an “adventure game for adventure fans, funded by adventure fans, developed by adventure fans.” There’s no denying this is a unique event happening, not just a game that needs a hand out.

History Repeating
So Tim, do you think this mega success can be repeated? Further, do you think indie teams without the fame of Double Fine can have as much success on crowdfunding platforms? Yes, he does. “I definitely think it can be done again,” states Tim. It’s not all about fame, it’s about having the right idea at the right time - all of the forces need to come together. Most importantly, you need to communicate this through your pitch. May the five forces be with you.

Chelsea Larson-Andrews is the CMO for design3, the premier game development e-learning portal. Chelsea loves online marketing, social media, mobile games and yoga. Please follow her on Twitter @design_3.

should clarify that I'm pointing out how popular Fallout is, that is due to the success of wasteland. Wasteland 2 needs to happen regardless (we need a real Fallout 3). Its just a shame they used Kickstarter.

Community Funding yes.. Kickstarter no. There are other ways to do this, Kickstarter is just one. We saw Notch was able to do quite fine with just a paypal account. Desura and GamersGate offer better alternatives to Kickstarter, they just aren't fads like Kickstarter is. Hence my annoyance with why they ended up using it. We already have better systems in place.. but no one seems to care.

Sorry but Tim Schafer was only successful with Kickstarter because he sold his reputation. It has absolutely nothing to do with what he said, most of what he's pointed out is theoretical since he's trying to advise indies to do the same as him... can't be done. A big part of why Double Fine got so much funding was due to the industry essentially playing favoritism where by Schafer was able to exploit the relationships he had within the industry to his own advantage, this is why they had the PR success that they did.

IMO this article gives probably the worst advice I could think of for Indies. My biggest tip to anyone attempting to use community funding is GET THE HELL OUT OF PRE-PRODUCTION BEFORE ASKING FOR FUNDS. We're not trying to convince anyone that our reputation as developers is good enough, its not.. What we're doing is sales, we're asking for people's money in exchange for goods. The pitch should be more like a playthrough video of the actual product and showcasing the features of the title.. it should also be a form of Demo Reel.

I think that this whole kickstarter nonsense is a load of ****. Schafer has done NOTHING with it so far- sure he got $3Million dollars but this is only due to history. Same with Fargo, ect ect. An Fresh upstart Indie is NOT going to be able to replicate this.. Especially not with the advice Schafer has just given. (because its empty and offers no real solutions to the problems Indies will be faced it.. it is blind optimism at its best. And Scahfer has only gotten to this point because of that Blind Optimism.)

Once he finally gets the game finished and turns a profit, then and only then is he in a position to give advice. At the moment everyone is jumping the gun. His pitch frankly was pretty terrible, we learned nothing of the actual game, or its features. We were sold purely on history. No indie can do that. I kinda liked Fargo's pitch more because it was a bit critical of publishers and explained a lot of why it was necessary to go into community funding.. but again subjected to the same flaws as Schafer's pitch..

And further more, Desura doesn't require any of this. Get the game at least to Alpha... put it up here.. and away you go. ;)

As I've said on the forums many a times, Kickstarter offers you nothing. Desura and Gamers Gate presently offer you distribution along with the ability to take in funds un-restricted. Further more you could easily build a better website with the 10% you have to pay Kickstarter. The results would be better and you'd likely get more injections of capital in the end.

Also a major risk you run is brokering power/influence on the project. Kickstarter has the "Tiered" approach, where by the bigger the investment the more incentives, a lot of the time the incentives are things like "meetings with developers" ect, which can be a huge problem as this creates a sense of entitlement towards the project and towards input.

We don't want to segregate people and we certainly don't want to cause elitism towards our feedback, since all feedback is critical. So I recommend AVOID power brokering- if you do this it could and likely will lead to a lot of forum wars. I'd argue there should only be like 1 or 2 options for purchase, 1. a Pre-Order of the game 2. a "Bulk" community option where 20 people get 20 copies of the game and are also allowed to put an easter egg into the game.

That's as far as I'd probably recommend going with Incentives.

Physical objects should be OUT OF THE QUESTION, since Shipping factors into it. This takes away capital from the product which is bad. We are not in the business of happy meal game packages so avoid it as much as possible. Try to rely on digital.

I agree he is not giving very good advise and Kickstarter is not a good way for indies to start but you're sounding like Schafer did a bad thing by using his "reputation".

Many people didn't even know who he was before this Kickstarter thing began. Main reason he was very successful on Kickstarter is his team and games he made. You can't just ignore a guy with a big development studio and backlog of legendary games. If you like what he is offering (2d adventure) you don't ignore him, you just jump on the offer because it's a high chance he will get it done good and that's your only chance to see that game anyway.

I think key factor is making people believe that you're capable of doing what you're offering.

I know their history and know what they can deliver. That's all I need to know. What you seem to not understand is their abilities. You might be a game developer but that doesn't qualify you to badmouth them or their projects. You might not like their games but I can see the quality and reasons behind them.

Also you called Schafer "charismatic fool with one or two legendary games". That was funny. I couldn't understand if you were criticizing or praising.

While a lot of what you're saying makes sense (I definitely think that games that have moved beyond pre-production have a much better chance of attracting funds than those trapped in the limbo of perpetual planning) I don't think it's fair to say that Kickstarter is a fad. A lot of people like to claim things are fads when they're simply over saturation. 3D is the perfect analogue. We got stereoscopic, everyone went crazy, then they all started to hate it, now it only gets used occasionally, but for those who enjoy it it is a much better product than the old red/blue.

Double Fine needed kickstarter for this project, it was too much of a risk to jump in with someone like desura, or steam without being sure of a return. This way they were sure that people wanted to buy the game, so sure that a better game is now being made than would've been made through other channels. I can't see how that's a bad thing.

1. Don't be Kenny G.
2. Don't make a documentary about Kenny G, no one wants it.
3. Don't offer a concert in a cramped elevator as an incentive, its more torture than incentive.
4. Don't offer a concert in a dentist's chair as an incentive, again more torture than incentive.
5. Don't be Kenny G.

1. Don't write claims on kickstarter that you can't /won't hold (code-hero)
2. Don't cut off the fans after you received the money.
3. Don't make some kind of party in who knows where @ usa/eu/russia/pacific sea/north pole, cause no matter what, most will be way too far away to attend.
4. Stop pretending/claiming that you got something, show it instead.

Just because kickstarter isn't investors, doesn't mean that a half plan and half the priority to the community is fair.

I don't mean to discredit what you've said, but I don't think anyone can expect that by following these 5 steps that you are guaranteed any amount of success, much less the level of success Tim had. As I've seen others observe, it's because of who he was, not as much what he was saying.

Isn't the key to kickstarter success: Already being well loved developer with a proven track record and an idea that reminds people of their gaming childhood.

I'm glad he's done well with kickstarter but I can't help feeling that if kickstarter were the only funding method indie projects for unknowns would have much less chance of funding. The other danger is that if double fine adventure, wasteland 2 or several other kickstarter projects turn out to be disappointments then the whole scheme will fall into disrepute.

I really hate how all of the reasons for motivating production involve a ludicrous amount of arrogance on the part of the management. I feel more obligated to write a book instead of writing a game design document tbh.

There isn't much more to say that hasn't already said, except that your rewards are generally unimportant. Of the 20 or so successful kickstarter campaigners that I've spoken to, half don't have a clue why they were successful ("hype" is a common word they use), a quarter say it was because they already had a following, and the last bit say it was because of their pitch/video. None said it was their rewards, and a good chunk said rewards were the least important.

We just did a crowdfuning campaign on 8bit funding (the Iup Bundle, check it out at IupBundle.org). We got about $2,000. There were six developers, each offering a completed commercial game at the lowest reward level ($5). We had videos showing all of our games in progress (some pretty impressive games IMHO), other great rewards, a video showing gameplay, reasons etc.

But we are mostly unknown, have no connections "in the biz" and couldn't mention a huge list of the commercial titles we worked on (not that we haven't worked on any, but its much less impressive when you say "yeah I did minor GUI art for such and such game", etc)

It is completely possible to run a successful kickstarter as an indie, but no unknown three man indie team is going to raise 3 million.

Wrong. The only thing you need to be is popular. Look at the Yogscast. Their game is a load of crap, but cus they've just such a huge and devoted audience, they got their funding.

Double Fine has a really bad release history; Schafer made his name with Grim Fandango, did Psychonaughts (which fell under the radar), and then ****** up every major release due to his expertise in setting design and not gameplay (Brutal Legend was a multigenre mess) till Stacking (itself too short).

The public are stupid and not analysts; they don't see release history, project management and staff, or the fact that the genre is defunct and won't sell on mass. They see funnie video with charismatic fool who made one or two epic games they remember playing and enjoying. Add to this that they, the public, aren't expecting their money back.

I would've turned this monkie down for funding if he said, 'gimme 400k, 6 months and I'll give you a return on your investment'. OK, he's got 3 mil. 3 mil buys a lot of 'get-it-done', and brain if he needs it to get the product right, and add to that people know about this guy now due to the publicity, but based on historical ineptitude, this man is not the horse to bet on if you want a high quality, well selling title.

:( you make him sound far too bad - I loved Grim Fandango , Monkey Island and Psychonauts . But you are right , if they calculated 400k to be enough for a project and got 3 mil , well it better be a perfect game .
Plus it disgusts me to see fully-fledged game companies to get on the kickstarter horse . Funding sites are made for INDIES . But these guys are taking advantage for the free shitload of money .

Yeah, I know I can be pretty harsh but I'm speaking as a professional developer who’s really rather good at game’s design, so I'm being hard on the guy by reflex as I desire high quality.

Game.biz went batpoop over my comments (like I care though). I'm not saying the guy cannot do good games, it's as I said; if he sticks to his own genre - roleplaying setting design - and gets other people to handle the gameplay, it'll be awesome. But given DF's release history, if that is what he was going to do, he would've done it by now.

He made a name for himself pre-Double Fine, and nothing since then, apart from maybe Psyconaughts (Stacking, good, Stacking, not Grim Fandango 2 quality), has matched the quality.

Who knows, maybe 3mil is enough to make Double Fine Adventure on par with Grim Fandango. I don't expect it, but I am hoping for it.

You are right with Stacking :) , I found it very bland and with no substance whatsoever , the story was cliché and the gameplay almost unexistent since you were always spoonfed on what to do and HOW .
I've JUST watched another kickstarter funding of a game called Yogventures , basically these guys got funded because they have a huge , HUGE fanbase on their youtube channel . And they got funded $338,508 out of $250,000 . Very sad considering they are ripping off minecraft . Other indies with new ideas and maybe even great ones aren't getting funded :( .

Yeah, but Stacking had excellent ascetics and setting though, what Schafer’s great at.

Tell me about Yogventures. -_- You've got it spot on. Minecraft has a hell've lot of geometry math - chunk based data compression - behind it those guys won't be able to replicate correctly, let alone the gameplay that they want to make is beyond them, and that alpha is a joke.

'Minecraft only better' is a nice idea, but Winterkewl don't have that kind of experience, Notch to make the engine, or a guy like me who could make the gameplay systems they want.

I said, 'They'll get the funding, they'll even make the game, but it won't be a high quality product', and their fan base told me to **** off and die.

Those guys are a pair of monkies using their popularity to direct money into their pet project, not professionals with proven experience needing the funding to make their new idea. No one listens to the voice of reason though; they just throw money at those idiots.

Just because an industry is not currently profitable does not mean that it can't be revitalized. Otherwise consoles would have ended in the crash of 1983 and all the subsequent devices would have never been made. Dual Stick shooters were dead until geometry wars revitalized the genre.

Maybe Schafer will be able to pull it off, maybe not. In any case, I am very excited to see what will come out of the project. If it succeeds then it might set a new standard for game developers. But of course if it fails it will 'prolly take kickstarter down with it..

I'd love to do a Kickstarter, but have to settle for Indiegogo as a Canadian. For me it is about timing. I want to have enough of the game complete that people can "invest" in something tangible. This is a huge challenge, but hopefully I'll choose the right time.